


Cats have White Fang(s)

by verboseDescription



Category: RWBY
Genre: Backstory, Faunus Prejudice, Gen, Pre-Series, Snapshots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 08:28:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5532566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verboseDescription/pseuds/verboseDescription
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you're born into a political organization, all you learn how to do is fight for equality. But when you're a child, there's a limit to the kind of fights you can join.<br/>Thankfully, no one stays a child forever.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Cats have White Fang(s)

Blake is the only child at the rally. This isn’t anything new. Most parents, no matter how involved in activism they were, wouldn’t let their child join the White Fang, even if they joined themselves. They’d be too worried. They’d hire a baby sitter and go out themselves.

Blake doesn’t have worried parents to ban her from showing up to protests. She doesn’t even have someone who can pawn her off on another, less political relative. Everyone she knows is where she is. Blake thinks this is how her life has always been. She might have been born into this. She might have been born _for_ this.

All of the loud protests, the screaming crowds… She knows she can help somehow, even if she’s still young. And she knows she can count any one of the adults in the area to pick her up once she gets tired. Blake trusts them. She’s never had any reason not to, despite what humans might think of them.

They are the White Fang.

They are her family.

 

“And what did you learn today?” He’s carrying her in his arms. Blake likes it. It makes it feel like she’s really his daughter.

“I learned that humans don’t care if they hurt children, and that some bird faunus need certain accommodations so that they can comfortable walk inside doorways,” Blake replies in a tone too serious for many girls her age. She’s never talked like a kid, she never had the chance. Then, wrinkling her nose, she adds, “And that screaming makes your throat hurt.”

“Grey is here,” He replies, a warm chuckle escaping his throat and Blake’s heart falls because she knows what’s coming next, “He can make you tea at his place.”

“Alabaster--,” Blake begins. She doesn’t want to cry. She’s a big kid now, and she has to be grown up. And if he thinks she’s a kid, he’ll never let her stay.

“You know how dangerous it can be with me,” Alabaster reminds her, “Humans don’t like us. And they don’t like the White Fang. Besides, I’m sure Grey has some tuna for you.”

Blake says nothing, and slides out of his arms. She had hoped, this time, he’d let her stay. She hadn’t gone home in a month.

“Hello Grey,” Blake says, as polite as ever, “How are you?”

 

When she isn’t out screaming her lungs out about the newest political unrest, she spends her time at the house of any member that will have her. The White Fang’s Leader, Alabaster Cream, was her legal guardian but he was a busy man and didn’t know as much about raising a child as a father should. Eventually, a family steps up to take his place.

She meets the Taurus family at age eight. They have a son a few years older. His name is Adam. She accepts them immediately as family, because she’s just a child and she sees the world in black and white. In her experience, there has only been two kinds of people in the world; her family, and the ones against them.

And all faunus are her family.

So she introduces herself and Mrs. Taurus tells her if she ever gets tired of traveling around they’d be happy to have her as their daughter. Blake smiles. They aren’t as political as Alabaster, which means they have time to take care of her. They feed her tuna. She’s only a child, so she considers this a sign of love.

“It’d be nice to have somewhere to put my stuff,” Blake admits, trying very hard to pull off a casual vibe. She thinks she succeeds, but only Adam would have agreed.

Mr. Taurus does not become her father because she still hopes to have Alabaster take the roll, even though he only adopted her out of a sense of duty to The Cause and even at eight she knows this.

Mrs. Taurus does not become her mother because Blake does not know how to be mothered.

But Adam becomes her friend.

 

“Do you have to get into a fight with everyone?” Adam asks. She’s twelve and he’s picking her up from detention. It’s all Blake’s fault.

It’s almost always Blake’s fault.

“No,” Blake replies defensively, “Just humans.”

Adam sighs.

“Look,” He says, “I hate humans as much as the next faunus, but Mom’s going to get really mad if she gets a call from the principal every day.”

Blake frowns. She doesn’t want Mrs. Taurus to deal with Principal Calico just for _her._ They were kind enough to let Blake live with them, the least she could do was stay out of trouble.

“I’m sorry,” Blake says, “Alabaster taught me to stick up for myself.”

“Well, _my_ parents told me to get an education.”

 

“Watch out, there’s a black cat coming through!” Blake hears a voice call. She lowers her head. She’s not going answer.

“Yeah, we all know that they’re bad luck!” Another voice agrees.

She hates this. Alabaster would tell her to use her words to fight back, to educate them and explain why what they’re doing is wrong.

But Adam’s watching her and his words still echo in her head, despite it being a year prior.

The Taurus family want the best for their children, so Blake doesn’t fight.

She doesn’t know what to do with the anger in her chest and the tears in her eyes won’t go away, so she does the only thing she knows how to do.

She runs.

She’s just so tired of being pushed around.

 

Despite their insistence on not fighting with humans—something Blake still found strange—the Taurus family was that it was a lot better than living with Alabaster, or one of his friends in the White Fang. The kitchen was always stocked. They cared for her when she was sick. And there was always so many books.

The only problem was, they were _good_ parents. Which meant that they didn’t like the thought of Blake going to a protest.

“They’ve been getting a bit more violent lately,” Mrs. Taurus explains, “I’m sure it’s not Alabaster’s fault—he hates violence, I know—but it just isn’t safe lately, sweetheart.”

Blake doesn’t bother explaining that she’s already been pepper sprayed once, and tear gassed twice. The black eye she’s sporting wouldn’t help her point, either. She’s trying to be a good daughter now, so she doesn’t go out to the protests.

At least, not that Mrs. Taurus knows of.

 

“Mom’s going to notice if we keep sneaking out,” Adam says as they make their way into the crowd of faunus protestors.

“I’ll stop if you will,” Blake says back. Adam doesn’t respond. She didn’t expect him too; he’s as invested as she is.

“It’s not like we’re doing much good, anyways,” He mutters, surprising her. Out of the two of them, she had always been the more cynical one.

“Something needs to be done, Blake,” Adam says, “We can’t let ourselves get pushed around.”

Around them, faunus murmur in agreement.

Alabaster isn’t at that meeting. It doesn’t surprise her, but it does make her worry.

 

“Hey Blake,” It’s a human from her class. He used to make fun of cat ears until she bit him for it.

“Hey,” Blake replies. She doesn’t know what he could want from her, “Did you miss a homework assignment or something?”

“No, it’s not that,” He says, “I, uh, just wanted you to know. When I was making fun of your ears, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“People rarely intend to be racist,” Blake says stoically, “I’m not still mad, of course. It’d be ridiculous to hold a grudge for that long.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to make sure,” He nods. He looks nervous, “I just wanted you to know that I really was sorry. Anyways, uh, see you in class.”

And then he jogs off, leaving Blake to wonder what that was all about until she sees Adam in the corner of her eye.

Suddenly, she has a pretty good idea what happened.

Adam’s words echo in her head.

 

When Blake announces that she’s going to train to become a huntress, everyone in the family’s surprised. She’s pretty sure they assumed she’d be something like a lawyer.

“Alabaster is still your legal guardian,” Mr. Taurus says, “You’ll have to talk to him.”

So she does.

 

The house is different then what she remembers. It had always been cluttered and in a constant state of disarray, but it had never seemed like a bad thing before.

She wonders if this was just because she was a child, but when she sees him in his office she knows it is not.

“Alabaster,” She calls out. She’s too quiet. Being in his house always made her feel so small.

“Alabaster,” She calls, louder. He’s so startled that the paper he was looking at flies right out of his hand.

“Blake,” He says. He looks tired. He looks frantic. Nothing like the man she remembers, “It’s been a while.”

“What happened to you?” Blake asks. She’s got no reason to worry for him, not after all this time, but she can’t help it. He’s still family.

“I’m resigning from the White Fang,” Alabaster gives a weak smile, “They don’t want the same thing I do. I haven’t seen you at any of the protests in a couple weeks so I’m sure you don’t know what’s going on. I guess I’m getting too old to get with the times.”

A rush of pity overwhelms Blake. He lived for the White Fang. He was nothing without it.

“You were doing great Alabaster,” She says, “I don’t know why they would want someone else.”

_(“We can’t let ourselves be pushed around.”)_

She’s lying and they both know it but he smiles and thanks her anyways.

“So,” Alabaster says, “What can I help you with?”

“I want to become a huntress,” Blake replies, “I was thinking of applying to Beacon—when I’m old enough, I mean. So I’ve been looking around for fighting academies in the area. I’ve found a couple that’ll accept me, but you’re still my father, legally, so I need your permission.”

“Well you have it,” Alabaster smiles, “Being a hunter can be a noble profession, if you let it be. I’m sure you’ll do well, but I have one request.”

“What is it?”

“Take care of yourself.”

 

“Looking at more schools?” Adam asks. Blake glances up from her scroll and nods.

“That’s good,” Adam says, “It’s important to know how to fight, even if you don’t become a hunter.”

“Is that why you went?”

Adam nods.

“Do you need any help choosing?”

“No thanks,” Blake says, “I think I’ve got it.”

She doesn’t want to go to a school that he picks for her. They’ve been having too many different opinions lately.

 

It’s her last day at home with the Tauruses. She’s already packed what she needs to and left it in her new dorm but came home to say one last goodbye to everyone. She’s got the basics of her weapon down too, it’s practically finished, so she brought it with her so that she could get a few tips.

Adam likes it, but he doesn’t like the bow she’s sporting.

“I just wanted to see what it was like to fit in for once,” Blake says, “I’ll take it off once I get used to the campus.”

Adam frowns at her, but says nothing.

In fact, he barely talks at her the entire night until suddenly it’s 3 am and he’s shaking her awake telling her there’s something he needs her help with.

“We’re family, aren’t we?” He says so Blake rubs the exhaustion out of her eyes and gets dressed.

She wears her bow. Adam wears a white mask.

Neither of them bring up how much they hate the other’s choice in accessory.

 

Adam explains what he needs her to do as they head towards a forest full of red leaves. He says he’ll scope out the area first so that they know when the perfect opportunity to strike would be. So Blake sits down on a nearby rock and waits, wondering if this is the sort of life being a huntress will give her.

A few minutes later he tells her its time, so she sits back up and they run to the train tracks.

They’re right on time. She can hear the train whistle as they stop.

Adam jumps first.

Blake follows.

The first thing Blake hears once she gets inside is Adam saying, “Looks like we’ll be doing this the hard way.”

The first thing she sees is hundreds of robots activating.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Blake scoffs.

Adam attacks first.

Blake follows.

 

They find what they’re looking for with ease. Adam knows what he’s doing.

“Perfect,” He says, “Move to the next car. I’ll set the charges.”

“What about the crew members?” Blake asks hesitantly. Adam looks at her.

“What about them?” He asks, not bothering to disguise his distaste. Blake bites her lip.

 

She’s an entire train car away from him and it occurs to her that if she leaves him now, he may never see her again. With all of the excitement going on, she forgot to tell Adam where she was going to school.

She could leave him behind. Leave _everything_ behind.

She’s not a fool. This isn’t the first time Adam’s asked her to do something dangerous for him, and she knows it won’t be last. She knows what he’s doing. Or, at the very least, she has an idea.

If Alabaster stepped down as leader, then someone else must have stepped up.

“Blake!” Adam calls, running towards her. Blake looks at him. She looks at his mask.

She knows the world is more than just black and white.

She knows there is a better way, somewhere.

 She hopes she can find a better way, somehow.

 “Goodbye,” Blake says.

And just like that, she cuts the train cable,

and cuts her best friend,

out of her life.

**Author's Note:**

> Technically it'd probably make more sense for the Black trailer to be right before she entered Beacon, but its my fic so I'm in charge.  
> I suppose the holidays are an odd time to upload a story like this, but I'm Jewish so honestly this kind of is in the holiday spirit for me. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed.


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